1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a program information broadcasting system for broadcasting information of component elements to constitute a program such as category information, performer information, etc. of each of the programs to be broadcast, and further to a broadcasting device used for the above broadcasting system, and to a receiving terminal unit for receiving various types of program information thus broadcast and for displaying the information quickly and efficiently.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, with development and progress of communication technique and data processing technique, multi-media information such as audio information or video information is digitalized and offered to users. Also, with the introduction of large capacity storage medium in the market, it is now possible to provide a broadcasting system, which can send a large amount of data via broadcasting or communication facilities, and receive and accumulate the information at a terminal unit on user side so that the users can view it at any time desired.
Normally, in case a viewer receives and views a broadcasting program using a receiving terminal unit such as television receiver or radio receiver, the user is informed of program content and broadcasting schedule on program schedule in television/radio page of newspapers or magazines and decides the program to view or listen. When the user wants to subscribe a program, it is necessary to input and set broadcasting channel, scheduled broadcasting time, etc. of the program found on newspapers or magazines. In this respect, when the user does not have newspaper or magazine at hand, program subscription cannot be inputted because no program schedule can be referred.
Under such circumstances, it is now partially practiced, in case of television broadcasting, for example, to use a new type of television receiver provided with a data decoder, by which program information including program title and other information is broadcast in multiplex on video signal via teletext or the like, and program schedule can be displayed on screen of the television receiver. As an example, in digital satellite broadcasting, which has been recently started in Japan, program information and broadcasting program are broadcast.
In the broadcasting of program information as proposed in the past, broadcasting center prepares and transmits a program information (master data) and transmits the program information in broadcasting, and the data of the broadcast program information is received and reproduced (or decoded) and displayed on display unit. Included in the program information related to each program are program identification number, program title, broadcasting channel, explanation of program content, program category, individual key word relating to the program (data items such as performer, director, original author, etc.; generally called xe2x80x9citemsxe2x80x9d), date and time of broadcast starting, date and time of completion of broadcasting, etc.
In the digital satellite broadcasting, the program information is transmitted at the same time as the broadcasting program. By receiving the program information, electronic program guide (also called xe2x80x9cEPGxe2x80x9d) is prepared, and program information is displayed to the users. Using the electronic program guide, the user can obtain various types of information relating to the program on television screen in the same manner as the checking of program on newspaper or other media. Also, it is possible to subscribe or purchase the program using the electronic program guide. The electronic program guide is practically used in the digital satellite broadcasting, which is currently in the stage of practical application. in case program information is retrieved on the electronic program guide as described above, the data of the program information is received by a receiving terminal unit, stored in memory of the receiving terminal unit for once, and is displayed on display screen after retrieval.
However, in the broadcasting of program information as proposed in the past, data is retrieved only after all of the data to be retrieved is incorporated in memory or retrieval of the data is conducted while incorporating the data. In any case, the retrieval cannot be completed until all of the program information is completely incorporated, and the user must wait for relatively long time until program information is actually displayed after an instruction to display the program information is inputted.
To solve the above problems, it is a first object of the present invention to provide a program information broadcasting system, a broadcasting device and a receiving terminal unit in the program information broadcasting system, by which it is possible to minimize waiting time in retrieving or in subscribing a program when the user retrieves program by checking program guide.
It is a second object of the present invention to provide a program information broadcasting system, a broadcasting device and a receiving terminal unit, by which it is possible to increase degree of freedom to issue coupon in case coupon is given to the user to the program, which can be broadcast by adding mail.
To attain the above objects, in the program information broadcasting system of the present invention, program components of the program to be broadcast are divided into a plurality of items and are turned to data at a broadcasting center, a master data of the program information to recognize the program is prepared, minimal necessary items for preparation of a program guide are extracted from each of the data of the master data, and a program basic information is prepared, the above master data and the program basic information are transmitted at the same time as the broadcasting, and the program basic information is received, reproduced and displayed before the master data is completely received at the receiving terminal unit.
As described in the above arrangement, program basic information is transmitted via broadcasting in addition to the master data of the program information. Because the program basic information has far less amount of data compared with the master data, it is possible to minimize the time to incorporate the program basic information on all of the program information by the receiving terminal unit and to completely store the information in the memory of the receiving terminal unit. For this reason, it is also possible to retrieve and to quickly perform processing to display the information on display screen and to efficiently carry out program information display operation.
According to the invention as set forth in Claim 1 of the present application, program components of a program to be broadcast are divided into a plurality of items and are turned to data at a center, a master data of the program information to recognize the program is prepared, minimal necessary items for preparation of program guide are extracted from each of the data of the master data and a program basic information is prepared, the above master data and the program basic information are transmitted at the same time as the broadcasting, and the program basic information is received, reproduced and displayed before the master data is completely received, whereby it is possible to minimize the time to incorporate the program basic information on all of the program information by the receiving terminal unit and to completely store the information in the memory of the receiving terminal unit.
According to the invention as set forth in Claim 2 of the present application, there is provided the program information broadcasting system according to Claim 1, wherein the program basic information is prepared by extracting information with higher utilization frequency and program information with higher utilization frequency is quickly received and displayed.
In the invention as set forth in Claim 3 of the present application, there is provided the program information broadcasting system according to Claim 1, wherein the program basic information is prepared by extracting data according to predetermined attributes from the master data of the program information, and the program information suitable for preference and satisfying requirements of the user can be quickly received and displayed.
In the invention as set forth in Claim 4 of the present application, there is provided the program information broadcasting system according to Claim 3, wherein the attributes for preparation of the program basic information are related at least to one of program category, individual information, or service provider.
In the invention as set forth in Claim 5 of the present application, there is provided the program information broadcasting system according to Claim 4, wherein as many types of program basic information as related to the above attributes are prepared.
In the invention as set forth in Claim 6 of the present application, there is provided the program information broadcasting system according to Claim 5, wherein said plurality of program basic information comprise data where the attributes used as basis of preparation of the program basic information are turned to key codes and prepared in a summarized table and data prepared from identification information of the programs extracted based on the attributes and turned to a summarized table, whereby the data prepared by turning the attributes to key codes and prepared in a summarized table are linked to the data prepared from identification information in a summarized table.
The invention as set forth in Claim 7 of the present application provides the program information broadcasting system according to one of Claims 1 to 6, wherein the master data and the program basic information are transmitted at different cycles.
The invention as set forth in Claim 8 of the present application provides the program information broadcasting system according to Claim 7, wherein the master data and the program basic information are transmitted in such manner that the master data are transmitted at longer cycle than the program basic information.
The invention as set forth in Claim 9 of the present application provides the program information broadcasting system according to any one of Claims 1 to 8, wherein, when transmitting the program information, the data used for preparation of the program basic information is deleted from the master data and a program extended information is prepared, and the program basic information and the program extended information are linked together and are transmitted.
The invention as set forth in Claim 10 of the present application provides the program information broadcasting system according to Claim 1, wherein program information is transmitted and mail is broadcast at the center, and the mail and the program information are linked together, and the receiving terminal unit can gain access to the link data of the program information from the received mail.
The invention as set forth in Claim 11 of the present application provides the program information broadcasting system according to Claim 10, wherein data to call functions which enables the user to participate in voting, reply to questionnaire, etc., are incorporated in the mail to be sent.
The invention as set forth in Claim 12 of the present application provides the program information broadcasting system according to Claim 11, wherein, when transmitting the mails, a summarized table of the mail is broadcast, whereby the receiving terminal unit checks whether the items listed in the summarized table of the mail have been already read or not, and only the mails not yet read are displayed.
The invention as set forth in Claim 13 of the present application provides the program information broadcasting system according to Claim 11, wherein, when the mail is transmitted, the mail is transmitted with some receiving condition, whereby the receiving terminal unit checks whether the user of the unit satisfies the receiving condition or not, and the mail is displayed only when the receiving conditions are met.
The invention as set forth in Claim 14 of the present application provides a broadcasting device, which comprises program information data preparing means for dividing program components of the program to be broadcast into a plurality of items to turn them to data form and for preparing master data of program information to recognize the program, information retrieval means for retrieving and extracting minimal necessary items for preparation of a program guide from the master data, transmitting data generating means for converting the master data and the program basic information to transmittable data, and transmitting means for transmitting the transmission data, whereby the receiving terminal unit can incorporate program basic information for all of the program information because the program basic information has far less amount of data than the master data, and it is possible to minimize the time to complete storage of the information in the memory of the receiving terminal unit.
The invention as set forth in Claim 15 of the present application provides a broadcasting device according to Claim 14, wherein there are provided mail data preparation means for preparing mail data in addition to the program information data preparing means, and transmission information data base means for integrating the program information data with the mail data and for sending it to the transmission data generating means.
The invention as set forth in Claim 16 of the present application provides the broadcasting device according to Claim 15, wherein the transmission information data base means sends the data integrated from the program information data and the mail data to the information retrieval means.
The invention as set forth in Claim 17 of the present application provides the broadcasting device according to Claims 15 or 16, wherein there is further provided voting and questionnaire preparing means for preparing voting and questionnaire data and for sending the data to the program information data preparing means.
The invention as set forth in Claim 18 of the present application provides the broadcasting device according to Claim 17, wherein the voting and questionnaire preparing means sends the prepared voting and questionnaire data to the mail data preparing means.
The invention as set forth in Claim 19 of the present application comprises broadcasting data receiving means for receiving master data of the broadcast program information, program basic information preparing means for extracting minimal necessary data for preparation of program guide from each of the data of the received master data and for preparing the program basic information, storage means for storing data of the program basic information, reproducing means for reproducing data of the received program information and the program basic information, display means for displaying the program information thus broadcast, and control means for controlling each of the above operations whereby the control means is provided with the functions to receive the master data of the program information when an instruction to display the program information is inputted and reads the program basic information from the storage means, prepares a summarized table of program and displays on the display means.
The invention as set forth in Claim 20 of the present application provides the broadcasting device according to Claim 19, wherein the program basic information is prepared by extracting information with higher utilization frequency.
The invention as set forth in Claim 21 of the present application provides the receiving terminal unit according to Claim 19, wherein the program basic information is prepared by extracting data according to the predetermined attributes from the master data of the program information.
The invention as set forth in Claim 22 of the present application provides the receiving terminal unit according to Claim 21, wherein the attributes forming basis for preparation of the program basic information are related to at least one of program category, individual information, or service provider.
The invention as set forth in Claim 23 of the present application provides the broadcasting device according to Claim 22, wherein as many types of the program basic information as related to the attributes are prepared.
The invention as set forth in Claim 24 of the present application provides the receiving terminal unit according to Claim 23, wherein a plurality of the program basic information comprise data prepared by turning the attributes for preparation of the program basic information to key codes and arranged in a summarized table and data prepared from identification information of the programs extracted based on the attributes and prepared in a summarized table, wherein the data prepared by turning the attributes to key codes and arranged in a summarized table are linked to the data prepared from the identification information in a summarized table.